Morocco Rally – Stéphane Peterhansel “close to having a perfect Audi”

We left Stéphane Peterhansel and Édouard Boulanger in bad shape on the 2023 Dakar. Injured in the back after hitting an extremely violent dune, the French co-pilot is back in the cockpit of the Audi RS Q e-tron E2 hybrid on this Rally of Morocco, to the right of “Monsieur Dakar”.

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The latter takes the wheel in this final of the W2RC after carrying out tests in Saudi Arabia and the short Baja Aragon (Spain) during the year. With no other objective than to refine its weapons before the objective of the Dakar 2024 (January 5-17) and a potential 15th coronation, motorcycles and cars combined.

 

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Before thinking about the major meeting of the winter, Stéphane Peterhansel accumulates kilometers in the Moroccan desert, and the start of the event gave him a smile. On the evening of the 2nd stage (out of 5), he was in 5th place in the general classification, just 13 minutes behind the leaders Nasser Al-Attiyah-Mathieu Baumel (Toyota).

“It wasn't a perfect day on Sunday, but at least it went better than Saturday, commented the Frenchman. I made a navigation mistake, it's not Édouard's fault (Baker). We made changes to the car's settings, particularly to the shock absorbers. We are close to having a perfect car from a setup point of view.

The Rallye du Maroc is the perfect place to fine-tune the vehicle, and the tracks taken are perfectly suited to this. It also helps me gain confidence for the 2024 Dakar.”